David Cage Details Beyond: Two Souls In A New Interview

Eurogamer.net conducted a lengthy interview with Quantic Dream boss, David Cage. During the interview, Cage revealed a lot of interesting tidbits regarding his upcoming game; Beyond: Two Souls.

Firstly, he revealed that the story of the game will take place over the course of 15 years. However, he clarified that these 15 years won’t be played out in a sequential order. Instead, the game will follow the main character, Jodie Holmes, around the timeline jumping from one part of her life to another, back and forth.

Speaking of Jodie Holmes, Cage also insisted that he did not hire Ellen Page to play the main character just to add star power to his game. According to him having a couple of voiceovers from movie stars just weren’t enough.

I was not looking for a shiny name to put on the packshot. I was looking for a creative collaboration with talent.We did not pay some actors in Hollywood to do a couple of voiceovers in a soundbooth… It was about scanning the face and body of these people to recreate their perfect clone in the game, in realtime 3D. We don’t only have their look, we have their movements and their expressions. Their entire performance is recreated.

Furthermore, he explained that Jodie wouldn’t be the only star in the show. Aiden, a supernatural entity, will be Jodie’s partner in crime. Players will have the ability to switch between the two characters. Being a supernatural entity Aiden will be able to interact with the world in ways that Jodie can’t.

Beyond is the story of two characters. It’s the story of their relationship. It’s about being tied to someone for all your life and having to cope with that, and accept it.

Besides that, David Cage assured the gamers that in Beyond: Two Souls you won’t do anything twice. This is a certain relief for those who were annoyed by the menial tasks Heavy Rain made you do repeatedly when all you wanted to do was find what happens in the story next.

Beyond is not based on patterns and levels. Each moment is different. Each scene offers you a different challenge. Each scene is unique, like you see in a film.

Now, is the turn for something truly surprising that was revealed in the interview. Heavy Rain was a game that revolved around QTEs. All the action in the game was composed of QTEs. This for many a gamer out there was a major turnoff.

According to David Cage in Beyond: Two Souls you won’t face a single Quick Time Event. Instead of QTEs the game just slows down at certain key moments, and you are given the time to comprehend what is going around you to make your decision.

We have a new system where there is no prompt any more. You just analyse what’s happening on-screen and you know what you’re supposed to do, without the game having to tell you, ‘Please press this button.

Beyond: Two Souls will feature a new interface which will have the gamers using the analog sticks a lot more. Gone are the days of button mashing. From the simplest interactions to fist fights all can be done by just using the joysticks on your controller.

Additionally, the graphics have significantly improved since the Heavy Rain days. In fact, when it comes to the video quality department, David Cage believes that there is no comparison between the two games.

We thought Heavy Rain looked great at the time, but when you compare it with Beyond, it almost looks like two games on two different platforms.

Lastly, PS4 did come up in the interview and this is what David Cage had to say about the highly anticipated next-gen console:

PlayStation 4? It’s pink. It’s shaped like a tower and it’s about one metre high. And it has wings.

For those of you who can’t tell; he was being sarcastic and did not give a straight answer to the question. Beyond: Two Souls is scheduled to be released on the 8th of October this year for PS3 only.